Author: Ed Ronco

City leaders heard about future plans for Sawmill Cove Industrial Park at last night’s Sitka Assembly meeting. Among the highlights of the strategic plan is a city-owned multi-use dock.

At lunchtime on Monday, a group of about a dozen people unfurled banners in the middle of downtown Sitka, hoping to raise awareness for climate change. And as it turns out, their banners, whistles and shouts were part of a larger effort.

The list of which schools made adequate yearly progress is out. In Sitka, it’s a mixed bag of good news and bad news. And every year, it’s also controversial news, about a system some educators say is patently unfair.

The state Disaster Policy Cabinet has met to discuss the crisis at the Pelican Seafoods Plant. Whether or not the town wins a formal disaster declaration remains up to the governor.

Sitka Community Hospital has 27 beds, six doctors and, as of this week, a new CEO. Hugh Hallgren started work on Sept. 15. He’s been a hospital administrator since 1982 and comes most recently from Ketchikan. KCAW’s Ed Ronco talked with Hallgren on Friday (9-18-09) about his goals for the hospital.

Sen. Hollis French swung through Sitka today (9-17-09) on a three-city tour of Southeast. The Anchorage democrat announced his intention to run for governor in July. He’ll vie for the democratic nomination next August against two other candidates so far, former house minority leader Ethan Berkowitz and Anchorage businessman Bob Poe. As chairman of the senate judiciary committee, Senator French last year led the bipartisan committee that investigated then-Governor Sarah Palin’s abuse of power in what has become known as “Troopergate.” He spoke with KCAW's Robert Woolsey:

While there is no longer an imminent threat of an uncontrolled release of ammonia in Pelican, the town’s hydro plant remains offline. Now, the lack of inexpensive power may prove just as hazardous to the Chichagof Island community as the lack of water.

If you’ve been downtown Sitka during the day on a Friday, you’ve probably heard what sounds like an electronic version of Big Ben, ringing out chimes at high noon. That’s the newest addition to Sitka’s tsunami warning system. Fire officials say the system makes life easier for them, and will make life safer for residents, in the event of an emergency.

State senator Albert Kookesh and three other Angoon residents were cited by state troopers on July 12th for catching more sockeye salmon in a beach seine than allowed under subsistence permit rules. In a hearing in August, Kookesh and his fishing partners challenged the citation, and argued that troopers had miscounted the number of permits being fished. The state last week (9-8-09) filed an amended citation to tighten up its case. Senator Kookesh now says he’ll oppose the violation on grounds that the state has no jurisdiction over subsistence on federal lands.

The campus of Sheldon Jackson College once again has the attention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1999 the Trust listed Sheldon Jackson’s Allen Auditorium as one of its eleven most-endangered historic sites. Whether or not the rest of the campus also will earn that designation remains to be seen. Brian Turner, an attorney with the Trust’s western regional office in San Francisco, visited Sitka this week (9-8-09). He spoke with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about some of the challenges involved in preservation: